Summary of the meeting held on 28 September by the Emilia Romagna Regional Secretariats at the Region itself regarding the situation that has arisen for the management of meetings with doctors and access to health facilities by DRUG SCIENTIFIC REPRESENTATIVES; on the basis of the relative regional resolution, the application rules and in particular the operational management decided by the various local health authorities.
We were jointly present at the meeting (the regional secretariats and two colleagues (Femca and Filctem) delegates/Rsu who work in pharmaceutical companies as scientific informants).
In a nutshell, the Region has demonstrated:
- the willingness to seek shared solutions to the issue by admitting i problems that yes they are determined in the practical application of the rules (Emilia Romagna was one of the last to implement the resolution in question and, also for this reason, they did not imagine that these problems would arise because the resolution activates a national agreement);
- to have sent to all local health authorities theindication to "moderate" and not stiffen the question (... in the awareness that the Region is not able to "impose" mandatory operating rules)
- that you have already defined one IT platform through which scientific representatives will be able to accredit themselves and arrange appointments with doctors (which will be further completed and finalized within a few days);
- want to better understand and clarify i interested parties in the matter (and therefore also to the use of the platform), in fact, in addition to scientific representatives (employees of pharmaceutical companies and who fall within very specific characteristics), they can/must meet doctors and healthcare facilities also those who deal with medical devices and /or generic health products;
- that the possibility of also understanding the activity of scientific information as training for doctors (recognized with training credits) it could represent an incentive to make the meeting mechanism work better;
- the need to take note (all) that in any case the previous system will not be able to remain as it is for the need for transparency and traceability of this activity.
Like Femca Filctem and Uiltec ER we have:
- rIbadito and deepened the concrete difficulties that have emerged in recent months to manage and organize the necessary meetings, in particular in Parma (with respect to this situation a specific union intervention was also made), in Bologna and, more recently, in Reggio Emilia (demonstrating that the territorial companies, in the autonomy, have not yet "reversed the trend". Examples: logistical issues (the collective meeting in a decentralized place where doctors struggle to go due to the variability of the commitments to manage), the lack of response to attempts to agree on visits via e-mail, the report to be filled in after each meeting which is difficult to implement, the impossibility of establishing precise times due to the variability of the doctors' commitments (better a time slot with a defined number of inform.scient. )…etc.
- appreciated and shared the willingness of the Region to link up with the representative organizations to improve the situation by seeking solutions;
- the clarification they want to make about the subjects involved and to be involved is considered useful (in a broader logic than just the scientific reps of the drug but not superimposable; in fact there are roles and subjects who "in analogy" - "in parallel" with what is happening for scientific reps they have to meet doctors and health facilities, and therefore share the operational issues in question)
- shared with the region that the "world is changing" and therefore one cannot think of maintaining the previous system but that the new setting (traceable and more precise) cannot create the impossibility of carrying out the work of sc. and the consequent necessary meetings ...... that the role of scientific representatives and the meetings carried out effectively and seriously guarantee a better quality of healthcare ... etc.
- made some further proposals to try to intervene on concrete operations (in addition to the implementation of the platform, the "message" given to the territorial companies, the clarification of the subjects involved, etc.): *** the simplification of the report that should be made by the doctors after the meetings (so that they can be completed quickly), *** the use of the email that the Region has created for the question of scientific representatives also to report "in real time" both concrete problems that should arise (so that the Region quickly becomes aware of them and can try to intervene) and solutions found or that can be proposed (this sending of reporting emails can be done freely by anyone who is in concrete situations).
The meeting concluded with a mutual commitment to work on the above points and shortly:
the Region (always using the specific email):
- will send the material relating to the IT platform and the related guidelines that they are implementing to the meeting participants for a feedback, an evaluation, ... (after having integrated their initial approach with the concrete suggestions that have emerged, for example
the use of time slots ....); - will evaluate any reporting emails (as mentioned above);
- will meet the local health authorities to continue discussions and checks on operating methods, to solve problems and aim for a homogeneous method (the difficulty, however, remains that of not being able to intervene "by command" on the autonomy of the local structures) .
So I would say that as far as we are concerned, we are waiting for the above to make our assessments of the platform and guidelines and we are recording the progress of the situation in the territories to also give feedback to the region on problems or solutions using
the email: informationscientifica@regione.emilia‐romagna.it